Robin Williams Once Got So Upset With Disney That The Company Sent Him A $1 Million Picasso Peace Offering

Part of the film's success was due to Robin Williams' beloved
genie character, whom the late actor voiced and improvised so well
that Disney decided to make Genie a pivotal role.

Robin Williams accepted a
pay cut for his voiceover role in "Aladdin" because he "wanted to
leave something wonderful behind for his
kids."Kevin Winter/Getty
Images

Williams ended up recording about 30 hours of written and
improvised dialogue for "Aladdin" because, according to a 1993
interview with New York Magazine, he "wanted to leave
something wonderful behind for his kids."

So Williams took a hefty pay cut and agreed to be paid $75,000
for his work on the Disney film instead of his usual fee of about $8 million — but there was a
catch. Williams did not want his voice used to merchandise
products.

"I don't want to sell stuff," Williams later told New York
magazine. "It's the one thing I don't do."

"We had a deal," the actor later said on the "Today Show."
"The one thing I said was I will do the voice. I'm doing it
basically because I want to be part of this animation tradition.
I want something for my children. One deal is, I just don't want
to sell anything — as in Burger King, as in
toys, as in stuff."

Williams joked: "You
realize now when you work for Disney why the mouse has only four
fingers — because he can't pick up a check."Adam Larkey/Disney-ABC Televsion Group via Getty
Images

Williams said Disney execs signed off on the deal, "Then all of a
sudden, they release an advertisement — one
part was the movie, the second part was where they used the movie
to sell stuff. Not only did they use my voice, they took a
character I did and overdubbed it to sell stuff. That was the one
thing I said: 'I don't do that.' That was the one thing where
they crossed the line."

Disney initially defended using Williams' voice,
saying, "He agreed to the deal, and then when the
movie turned out to be a big hit, he didn't like the deal he had
made."

But the studio quickly changed its tune and sent the actor
an apology in the form of a Pablo Picasso painting estimated at
the time to be worth $1 million, according to artnet.

The painting was a self-portrait of the artist as Vincent
van Gogh, which apparently really "clashed" with the Williams'
wilder home decor.

Williams' friend and
fellow actor Eric Idle, right, suggested Williams "burn the
Picasso live as a form of protest."AP
Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Williams' friend and fellow actor Eric Idle even suggested
Williams go on TV and burn the Picasso live as a form of protest.

Williams told New York mag that his previous "Mork & Mindy" merchandising was different
because, "the image is theirs. But the voice, that's me; I gave
them myself. When it happened, I said, 'You know I don't do
that.' And they [Disney] apologized; they said it was done by
other people.

"You realize now when you work for Disney why the mouse has
only four fingers — because he can't pick up a
check," he joked to the magazine.

Ultimately, Disney and Williams made up, later making a
third "Aladdin" sequel (he sat the second one out), 1996's
"Jack," and "Bicentennial Man" in 1999.